First step should be finishing the draft. I usually finish the entire story before starting my editing. I prefer it that way, I can always change it, rewrite it, that is no problem for me. You can do whichever you prefer. Before you start editing you should be clear about your own preferences.
Do you like to play with words? Put in hard to understand words like so many authors do? One of legendary Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta used to have a group of scholars with him when he wrote his works, he used to ask them for synonyms of words and then pick up the one he liked most. Writing can be made beautiful and interesting using both techniques, simple and complex words. If you want to be playful, you should sit with dictionary or phone to select the words you want to replace with playful words and then assess which one is better.
My style is I try to make my works as easy to understand as possible without the help of dictionary. When I first started reading English and Bengali books I had to refer to dictionary every alternate line, like we all have to do I believe, so these days if I have to look into dictionary to understand a word it bores me to death! Especially if I am reading a story, article, in case of poetry it can be ignored because they are smaller in size and poets sure love to play with words.
So do you or do you not want to be easily understood? If yes then go for simple language and be grammatically perfect, if not grab your phone or dictionary and play with words, but be grammatically perfect.
Once you have finished the story/poem/essay you can always tinker with the words, sentences and replace them with complex or intriguing or playful ones. No one will be stopping you from doing that!
There are so many things you can add when you are editing your work-
• A little drama • A sudden twist • Exquisite words • playfulness Once you have a finished work in your hand chiseling it becomes easier and foolproof, you know your work, its start, finish and content, now you can alter it as per your own wish.
In the end I believe the writer should write for readers but s/he should write for self too. If your own work does not make you feel smug and content then you are missing something I believe. You should be able to say to yourself yes, I really wrote a good piece! It is now up to the readers to like it or reject it!
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/self-e...
First step should be finishing the draft. I usually finish the entire story before starting my editing. I prefer it that way, I can always change it, rewrite it, that is no problem for me. You can do whichever you prefer. Before you start editing you should be clear about your own preferences.
Do you like to play with words? Put in hard to understand words like so many authors do? One of legendary Bengali poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta used to have a group of scholars with him when he wrote his works, he used to ask them for synonyms of words and then pick up the one he liked most. Writing can be made beautiful and interesting using both techniques, simple and complex words. If you want to be playful, you should sit with dictionary or phone to select the words you want to replace with playful words and then assess which one is better.
My style is I try to make my works as easy to understand as possible without the help of dictionary. When I first started reading English and Bengali books I had to refer to dictionary every alternate line, like we all have to do I believe, so these days if I have to look into dictionary to understand a word it bores me to death! Especially if I am reading a story, article, in case of poetry it can be ignored because they are smaller in size and poets sure love to play with words.
So do you or do you not want to be easily understood? If yes then go for simple language and be grammatically perfect, if not grab your phone or dictionary and play with words, but be grammatically perfect.
Once you have finished the story/poem/essay you can always tinker with the words, sentences and replace them with complex or intriguing or playful ones. No one will be stopping you from doing that!
There are so many things you can add when you are editing your work-
• A little drama
• A sudden twist
• Exquisite words
• playfulness
Once you have a finished work in your hand chiseling it becomes easier and foolproof, you know your work, its start, finish and content, now you can alter it as per your own wish.
In the end I believe the writer should write for readers but s/he should write for self too. If your own work does not make you feel smug and content then you are missing something I believe. You should be able to say to yourself yes, I really wrote a good piece! It is now up to the readers to like it or reject it!
Part 1 is here:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/self-e...